After ten years of blogging, I don’t feel like I have a whole lot left to say—at least not in a broad, general sense—to the fandom community at large. For the most part, I’ve said my piece. When new episodes come out or there’s a new kerfuffle somewhere, I’ll be happy to add my 2¢, but overall, I don’t have a lot of rants left in me.

Unless we start talking about the quality of a given story, especially in absolute terms. Then I’m going to have An Opinion™.

All of this came to mind recently when I saw a screenshot of a piece of some sort of interview with perennial self-important bellyacher Ian Levine. In the context of TV he hates, he ranted again about “the woman Doctor Who. Chris Chibnall has ruined it.”

Recently I scrolled past a similar social media conversation talking about Steven Moffat. Several people said they’d started out liking some of Moffat’s work (like Sherlock), but as things continued, they found they couldn’t stand it anymore. I’m almost certain more than one person said something very similar to Levine, along the lines of “Moffat ruined Doctor Who for me.”

Yet I came out of that conversation with a completely different feeling than I get any time Levine spouts off. Even though some of the points made were completely valid, and I harbor many of the same opinions those friends expressed, that isn’t the point. The difference is Levine’s absolutism. (And his sexism. But I’m not even getting into that.)

Look again at the phrasing the two parties used. While Levine insisted that “Chibnall has ruined it,” those in the other conversation said that the show had been ruined “for me.” Those two little words make all the difference. While one makes an “objective,” overall quality assessment, the other recognizes that it’s a matter of personal opinion.

During a recent conversation about media preferences, someone told me that I was very “live-and-let-live” (which was flattering). While I don’t think it’s always true, I try very hard to practice that kind of approach to media. If something is not to my taste, I file it under Not For Me and move on, because I know someone else will undoubtedly find it compelling.

In fact, that’s the entire point of art (here I include all kinds of storytelling: books, TV and movies, video games, etc.). Art is important  simply because it is subjective. Not only does every creator bring something distinct to their work, but so does every consumer of that work.

That’s why I feel so strongly that there is no such thing as an objective way to assess the quality of any given piece of art. Modern Doctor Who has its share of problems (so did Classic Who), but stating that it is “ruined” without any qualifiers (“for me”) is the height of hubris (which, frankly, fits Levine’s profile perfectly). And I just don’t have any tolerance for that kind of thing.

There’s no rule that says you have to like the same thing everyone else does, or that others have to like what you do (that would be boring anyway). But there’s one thing you absolutely must bring to any conversation on this show if you hope to maintain any credibility. That, my friends, is respect.